jessica's bridal shower cake

Our family friend's son recently got married. I was his daycamp counselor when he was about 4, so it's hard for me to think of him as old enough to be married even though I've spent time with him and his fiancee at holiday dinners over the past several years, and they are both lovely and unquestionably adults. Here's how you can tell this post is overdue: I was honored to make Jessica's bridal shower cake... and yet they already done got hitched! (Sorry so belated, guys!)

Anyway, my mom's friend sent me the invitation and gave me nearly free reign. She wanted the cake to coordinate with the invitation and decorations, all of which were Tiffany blue with bronze/brown accents. Done. She also wanted some fondant work, so I decided to make a cute little bride to sit atop the cake, like in the invitation:

I am paranoid, so I made two brides (in case one broke). Here's the winner, sitting back-to-back with her friend (who was perched in a spare wine glass as a cute table decoration, so she still got to go to the ball):

As I've described before, I'm still working on improving my fondant molding skills. With this project, I really wanted to accomplish some of the details from the invitation: pearl earrings and necklace made of royal icing with a tiny 00 tip, the drape of the dress down the side of the cake, and the veil. I also tried to make her arms look more realistic by giving her fingers and an indentation on the inside of her elbow. Although it's not edible, I had so much fun crafting a tiara out of floral wire and using it to attach the lace ribbon I selected for the veil. Aside from the lollipop stick holding up her body, and the toothpicks inserted in her arms, those are the only inedible parts of the cake (not that you'd want to eat a fondant bride, but I guess you could). 

Alas, my glamorous, svelte bride sank onto herself a bit while drying, resulting in a short, cute, chubby bride. (Bad posture due to a lack of yoga?) Jessica is a tiny slip of a thing, so this is no reflection on her! I continue to work on the right proportion of fondant to lollipop stick because I definitely see some sinking going on in my larger molded pieces. Still learning!

As for the rest of the cake, it was chocolate with vanilla frosting, and I piped frosting on the sides to generally match the piping on the cake on the invitation. After the frosting dried a bit (called "crusting," but that just sounds gross), I painted the piping with edible paint: bronze luster dust mixed with a little vodka. It gave the piping just a little bit of a gleam, though with the overcast outside light, it's pretty hard to see.

Here's how the cake came out. See how well the color worked with the decor? I was secretly thrilled. 



The cake was well-received by the partygoers, and I'm told the bride really liked it. Here's to a long and happy marriage, Jessica and Michael!

Print chocolate cake recipe.
Print vanilla frosting recipe. 
Print royal icing recipe.

Comments

Congratulations to Jessica, and Bravo to you!! Very nicely done.

:)
ButterYum